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REMARKS 



Hon. CLARK80N N. POTTER 



DELIVERED 



At tto© ©©l®toratl®m 



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TAMMANY HALL, 



OTTIX^-^ 4, 1871. 







NEW YORK: 

PRESS OF DOL'GLAS TAYLOR, LAW, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

Commercial Pi-intiiig House, cor. Nassau and Fultou bts. 

18 7 1. 



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REMARKS OF Hoi^. CLARKSON N. POTTER, 
AT TAMMANY HALL, JULY 4™, 1871. 



Grant) Saohkm and Fellom'^ Democrats : 

I join with yon in yonr mntnal congratnlations, at the peace and 
prosperity which obtain tliroiighont this vast kind. I share with 
yon in the exultation whicli every American citizen must needs 
feel, when he contemplates the progress, the power, and the im- 
portance, of these United States. 

But amid all these rejoicings have we no just cause for appre- 
hension "? Is there nothing in the present state of public aifairs that 
demands our gravest consideration, and should even excite our 
most serious alarm ? 

We have passed through a great war ; a great civil war that 
divided cm* people. Following those years of struggle, we have 
passed also thiough six years of Reconstruction ; years which, 
like the dead swell that follows the tropical tempest, were perhaps 
more dangerous to the ship of State than even the storm of war 
itself 

During these years African .slavery has been wholly abolished, 
and the franchise has been every where given to the negi-o. And, 
whatever our views in respect of the policy or justice of these 
measm-es may be, we must recognize and submit to the fact. Be 
the late amendments to the fundamental law by which these changes 
were prescribed never so irregular, or constitutionally invalid, it none 
the less remains that the amendments themselves exist, and have 
been accepted by the American People as part of the fundamental 
law of the land: exist if not constitutionally, then by virtue of re- 
volution, and in spite of the Constitution ; but, none the less, exist. 

But these are not the only changes that, of late years, affect om* 
government. That man, as it seems to me, fails to appreciate the 
spirit of the time, who does not see that oxa- people, in their 
notion of the rights of States, and of the power of the Federal 
Goverjunent, have departed far from the vicAvs of their fathers. 

Our fathers, who established this government, were the citizens 
of thirteen separate, independent sovereignties. Beyond their 
respective States they know no higher, or other allegiance; and 



they desired none. In their day, communication between the 
States was comparatively infrequent, and trade and intercourse 
delayed and difficult. But, since their time, steam communication 
by land and by water has developed the trade and consolidated 
the relations between the States, to a degree of which they could 
not have dreamed. Men are born in one State and grow up in 
another, and die indiflerently in a third. Nay, they sleep in one 
State, caiTy on their business in anotlier, and have a home for 
recreation in yet another. So that State lines have been forgotten 
and State rights have come to be undervalued. 

Moi-e than tliis, of tlie tliirty-seven States, twenty-four never 
were original States at all. Nearly all of these have known no life 
that was not part of or connected with, tliat of the Federal (iov- 
ernment. From their earliest settlement they Avere Federal Ter- 
ritories, living upon Federal bounty, controlled by Federal officers, 
subject in all things to Federal legislation ; and when they have 
come at last to be States, their peo})le cannot forget the territorial 
relations of their earlier years, and cannot be expected to have that 
State pride and that veneration for State rights which the citizens 
of the original States possess. 

Taking advantage of these changes, and taking advantage also 
of the exigencies of the war, tlie i)arty in power have usurped for 
the Federal Congress all the substantial powers of goveinment. 
By their legislation, and by their policy, they have everjwhere 
broken down the limitations upon Federal rights and Federal 
powers ; and have centralized, consolidated, and enlarged the con- 
trol of the general government. They have assumed to prescribe 
the conditions of suifrage, and, in a degree, to control the elections 
in all the States. Their Supreme Court, disregarding its own 
golemn decision, has, in effect, declared in favo.- of the absolute 
power of Congress over the contracts and property of citizens. 
They have seized upon the Banking Institutions and currency of 
the country, so that the ease or the scarcity of money, and the con- 
sequent ventures and sacrifices of the i)eople are at the daily mercy 
of the officers of the Treasury. They have proposed to transfer 
the appointment for all minor offices connected with the ti-ade of 
the country, such as harbor-masters, i)ort-wardens, health officers, 
l)ilots, notaries })ublic and the like, to Washington ; thus to add, 
manitbld, to a patronage now so vast that its demoralization is felt 
everywhere, and enables the President to discipline the scrupulous 



and refractory in his own piirty, even to the remotest township- 
They have granted the public lands to coi-porations throughout 
territories larger than France, to the exclusion of actual settlers ; 
thus creating artificial persons who will exercise absolute control 
over those vast regions, solely for the interests of their own share- 
holders and managers They have begun to charter private cor- 
porations to carry on business in the States, and have thus invited 
a concentration at Washington of all the lobbies and corporate 
corruj)tion of the country. And, finally, under the pretence of 
preserving peace and order in localities in which there was no 
constitutional complaint of resistance to the law, they have passed 
acts which enable the President to suspend the writ of Habeas 
Corpus, to use the army against the people and to subject nearly 
every charge of crime to trial in Federal courts ; acts which, in 
efiect, deprive the States of theu- sovereignty and independence. 

So that, on this ninety-fifth anniversary of American Independ- 
ence, we meet here in Tammany Hall to fling out the flag, and to 
rehearse the deeds and exalt the wisdom of our fathers ; and — 
misled by the great material progress and prosperity of our people 
which have happened more in spite of, than because of, the con- 
duct and changes in the government by the party in power — we 
lay our hands upon our breasts, and thank heaven that we are the 
freeest and most enlightened j^eople on the fiice of the earth. 
When, in truth, while we have preserved the name and kept the 
forms of government established by our fathers, we have de- 
parted from their spirit, and abandoned those limitations and res- 
trictions that mainly made that government worth having ; and 
are in fact to-day living under a government as centralized and 
absolute as that from which they revolted. 

Now, it this condition of things is to continue ; if, instead of a 
union of sovereign states, we are to have a consolidation of depend- 
ent provinces, the first matter to be remarked is the gross injustice 
and inequality to Avhich New York and the other great States are 
subjected. 

So far from being allowed her proportionate popular representa- 
tion in the National Congress, there are some thuty senators who 
represent less population than are represented in the Senate by the 
two senators from New York. In that liigher branch of the Legis- 
lature the vote of New York, with her nearly five million people, is 
neutralized by the vote of Nevada with scarce fifty thousand people. 



Indeed, a majority of the people of these United States dwell in but 
eight States, having only sixteen senators. So that a majority of 
three-fourths of that body may at any time represent but a minority 
of the whole population. 

And this fixed and constant inequality has been aggravated by 
the party in power. For, in the last House of Representatives (in 
which body legislation is mainly effected through committees), the 
chairmanships of five of the principal committees were given to 
Massachusetts, and not one to New York. So that this Empire 
State, which contains about an eighth of the entire population, 
and i:>ays, I presume, one-fourth of tlie entire taxation, has tar less 
control in the National Government than Massachusetts, with not 
a thirtieth of the wliole population. 

Of course, if this consolidation of govenunent is to be con 
tinned, this inequality must be connected. Either we must get 
back to tlie equal sovereignty of States, or forward, to their equal 
po})ular representation in both bi'anches of the Legislature. 

But if this inequality were corrected, and if the great States 
were admitted to theii" true relation and share in the consolidated 
Government, still the controlling Questions which now exist would 
remain. Sliall the jiowers of the Federal Govermnent be limited 
or absolute — shall they be centralized or localized? And to Avhich 
of the two great parties should that Government be committed, to 
those who favor or to those who oppose al)so]ute and centralized 
govermnent 1 

These vital (juestions present themselves to every citizen, white 
or black, rich or poor, pro-slavery or anti-slavery, re])ul)lican or 
democrat, and demand his gravest and most serious considera- 
tion. 

Is there tlien no danger in our situation ? I do not mean that 
the abolition of slavery or the enlargement of the fran(;hise, in 
themselves, endanger li-ee government; not at all. The danger 
lies not in these facts themselves, but in the centralization and 
assumjition of power by which the have been I'ffecteil and 
followed. Can it be ])OSsible that a gi-eat nation, extending from 
the Arctic Ciicle to the Tropics, with every variety of race, and 
soil, and climate, and protbiction, can be Avisely and justly gov- 
erned, not merely in national and general matters, but also in local 
and particular matters, by one Central Congress ? 

The Republicans do, indeed, tell us that the National Govern- 



ment is a government of the people, and for the people ; an(! can 
not, therefore, oppress the people. And if the people were but 
one person, this would be so ; and, so far as the powers oi a popu 
lar government are limited to those general measures that alike 
afiect all the people, this may be said to be so. But where a 
popular government centralizes all power, and undertakes to pre 
scriiie for the control of every locality, and to interfere with the 
conduct of every man's private life, it ceases to be a free govern- 
ment. That government is freest which most leaves it to the peo- 
ple of each locality to determine for themselves the aftairs of the 
locality. That is the best government which manages, while it 
preserves order, to govern least. 

For my part, the evils which, as it seems to me, must result 
from continuing in that course of centralization and consolidation 
the Republican party are pursuing, cannot be exaggerated. 

The absolute control over the franchise and property and con- 
tracts of citizens which Congress has asserted ; the creation of 
private corporations to carry on business M'ithin the States ; the 
pursuit of private legislation ; the consolidation at Washington of 
all the power and jjatronage of government, can have but one 
result, and that result must be the most wide spread and con- 
trolling corruj)tion. 

Already, the a] (plications to Congress for private cliartei-s and 
grants are to be numbered at each session by hundreds, and when 
the Republicans, if they remain in power, shall have united at 
Washington, all the lobbies that now invest tlie various state 
capitals, and shall have joined to them all the combinations that 
may exist for financial legislation, land stealing, and official 
ap23ointments, we shall have, and necessarily have, a condition of 
things, as much worse than the worst state of affairs whi(;h has 
or can obtain at any state capital, as the power of Congress is 
greater, and more extended, than the power of any State Legis- 
lature. 

I say w^e shall necessarily have this, because no personal charac- 
ter in legislators can prevent abuses where a great mass of private 
legislation obtains. In a country so vast as this, the National 
Legislature, when it assumes to regulate the affairs of every 
locality, can not but act blindly and blunderingly, no matter how 
wise or good those who legislate may personally be. Indeed, Avhen 
a single railway company owns a strip of land two thousand miles 



long by one hundred and twenty miles wide, what cliance, think 
you, there will be for wise or good men to be elected in all that 
vast region except those who are wise for, and good to, the railway 
comjjany ? No, fellow-citizens, no personal virtue, no private 
worth, in the man who steers a ship, will save the vessel, so long 
as he steers her into the maelstrom, or upon the rocks. And not 
the purity of an angel, far less the virtues of Grant and Morton and 
Butler and their Republican confreres, will suffice to save this 
nation, if it continues to be steered, as now, straight into the 
maelstrom of centralization, and ujaon the rocks of absolute power. 

These are considerations which address themselves to every man, 
whatever his past views or party affiliations. The question now 
is, not what should have been, but what is. Let the dead past 
bury its dead. Whatever may have been a man's views in the 
l)ast, it is for him now to decide whether he favors a limited or an 
absolute government ; whether he supports the localization or the 
centralization of its powers ; whetlicr he would have that paternal 
control, with its tariffs, and monopolies, and sumptuary laws, and 
government oversight, which leaves the citizen no individual action 
or judgment, and of which France is the example and the warning ; 
or that government which leaves to the citizen the utmost indivi- 
dual freedom consistent with public safety, and order. 

These, I say, are the (juestions and almost the only great questions 
that remain. And these questions are eternal in any system of 
extensive, popular government. Upon these questions, this great 
Democratic })arty has but one record and can have but one course — 
that of devotion to local and limited government. 

Its path in the future, therefore, is plain. It departs from no 
principle. It takes no strange ground. It but a])plies to existing 
ciix'umstances those fundamental j)rinciples which lie at the founda- 
tion of all really free governments. That man is a Democrat, be 
his i)ast record and affiliation M^hat they may, who seeks hereafter 
to limit and to localize tlie ])owers of government. That man is no 
Democrat, be he called what he may, who desires to centralize and 
enlarge those powers. 

In these days, as in tlie past, the eyes of the whole comitry are 
turned to New York. Hut the history of the country is the record 
of her ]>atriotism. Planted across the only natural gateway be- 
tween the basin of the great lakes and the tide-waters of the At- 
lantic, she might, after the Eevolution, have remained a separate 



State, and levying toll upon all the products of the great West and 
the exchanges of the East, have amassed wealth beyond the riches 
of the Orient. But she choose rather to cast in her lot with her 
sister States, and from the foundation of the government to this 
day, her devotion to the common good has been as faithful, as gen- 
erous. Her cry in the future, as in the past, will still be for Union 
and Liberty, and for that system of limited and localized govern- 
ment which the Union was formed to preserve, and without which 
it will, as I fear, prove not worth the having. 

When the venerable Tammeuend sat in judgment upon the 
prisoners whom the Ilurons had taken at Fort William Henry, his 
hopes were raised, and his heart was warmed by the presence of a 
young Warrior wlio bore upon his breast the sacred totem of the 
tribe, and whose counsels were so wise, whose conduct was so just, 
and whose abilities were so great, that he seemed to the ancient 
Sage the reproduction of the greatest of the past leaders of his 
people. But, amid all his hopes, the ancient Sage asked nothing 
merely for himself. His prayer only was that, under this young 
chief, his people might regain their former rights, and be led back 
to the peace, the virtue, and the security of their better days. 

So now the Democracy of New York — while looking with pride 
and hope to their young Uncas, the great chief whom they have 
exalted to the highest office in their gift — ask nothing merely for 
themselves, but will be found ready whenever the Democracy go 
again upon the war path, to follow whomever may be the selected 
leader of the party, earnest to do their part to bring back this 
people to Democratic principles, and to restore that system of 
limited and localized government without which, as I believe, true 
liberty cannot be preserved. 



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